Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

After a reboot (first one since the BIOS update and the immediate reboot after that), the temp dropped significantly again! Probably the new BIOS kicked in somehow, and the plastic element is out, so now it's at least as low as at start. CPU at a constant 10-15% and the core temp is at 45 degrees. On idle it's 41-42 now

Really, guys, remove that plastic piece of sh** from your X61!

---Polish by birth, Bruxellois by home, European at heart... but underneath all that, a proud owner of one of the earliest and still best X61 Tablets: 7764-CTO, SuperView SXGA+, 4GB Kingston HyperX 4-4-4-12 SDRAM, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

I'm very happy this issue can be viewed like closed. The plastic piece can been important, a technical note has been published by Lenovo. It's not easy to see this piece because it is very adjusted and not visible. But a fan assembly well running is important too, be care to the dust. Yours is new. Of course, the BIOS is significant also. To remove the plastic part, this involves complete disassembly of the unit to access the fan. This is an important and delicate operation. Do not worry if you do not specialize, the X61 is not easy to open. I'm thinking again the X61 tablet mobile PC is a good model.

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

It's true, and I should point that out: don't try to remove it yourself. It's not a part visible from the outside (as I opened my X61 myself many times), so better just go to an authorized Lenovo service like Didier's and have them remove it for you. The effect is brilliant! Right now my laptop is lying on a colder surface, 20-25% CPU load and the core temp is only 35 degrees C (95F), incredible!

---Polish by birth, Bruxellois by home, European at heart... but underneath all that, a proud owner of one of the earliest and still best X61 Tablets: 7764-CTO, SuperView SXGA+, 4GB Kingston HyperX 4-4-4-12 SDRAM, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

Good job - glad you were involved here and able to help! Many of the forum readers might be concerned about having some small piece of plastic in their system that could be causing trouble.

Let's go over this to make sure that we are talking about the same thing....

When new fan / heat sink assemblies ship as a service part, they have small dots of the thermal transfer material applied in a little grid or matrix, to the chip contact side of the heatsink of the CPU and sometimes GPU, depending on the system. When the fan / heatsink is installed, these little spots flatten out, creating an even coverage and ensuring good heat transfer.

To protect these dots during shipment, a thin piece of clear plastic is applied. This is supposed to be removed during the installation.

Lenovo issued a servicer tip because we found that some servicers did not know to remove this when they installed the part and this plastic created an insulative barrier and inhibited the fan / heatsink from doing it's job.

The is a helpful bulletin and not a statement of an inherent defect. I want to be sure that we don't create the perception that customers have systems that are now running warm because of some mysterious plastic bits.

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

Yes, it's well the plastic included in a Lenovo's technical note. I've found it between the fan assembly and the chipset IC (not the CPU), on its original place. But don't forget I've replaced the fan assembly in the same issue. And of course, the plastic film removed comes from the heatsink. On the original fan assembly, this film is still on place. That's abnormal. Like this part is scrap, I'well verified, now, the film is again there.

If customers reading this forum, it's easy to understand this film is not only the source of this issue. The good and actual situation comes from 3 actions : the plastic film moved, replacement of the heatsink assembly and last BIOS set up. Each point giving a step between the 80°C and the 35°C.

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

I have a Thinkpad X61 Tablet (7762-58g) running windows 7 since a few days and I want to update my BIOS from 1.21 to 1.24. This can only be done with a "BIOS Update (bootable CD)" but my tablet has no CD drive. I created a bootable usb-stick and copied the files but it doesn't work. I burned a CD and tried to boot on another pc. That worked thus the files are ok.

Does anybody have an idea how to solve this problem without borrowing a external USB CD drive?

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

Are you sure you made a bootable USB stick (bootsector etc)? Did your computer a) try to boot from it, and wasn't able to b)didn't even try to boot from it or c) did boot, but the BIOS update utility didn't work?

Because as far as I know, if it booted and started the utility, it should work fine. If it didn't, then probably the USB stick wasn't prepared as it should be or the BIOS wan't configured to boot from it. Google "bootable USB stick" if that was the case. If the case was the update utility not working, then I would suggest starting a new topic for that problem.

Cheers,

Martin

---Polish by birth, Bruxellois by home, European at heart... but underneath all that, a proud owner of one of the earliest and still best X61 Tablets: 7764-CTO, SuperView SXGA+, 4GB Kingston HyperX 4-4-4-12 SDRAM, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Re: X61 with new BIOS 2.13 overheats

my USB stick is definitely bootable. I installed windows 7 with it. I made it bootable and copied the windows 7 DVD. So I know how to do it. I don't understand why it doesn't work with the bios update CD.

I borrowed an external USB CD-drive. It booted but I couldn't do more than boot due to missing DOS drivers.